Courses

Examines the structural and historical aspects of the nternational legal system. Examines contemporary attitudes, doctrines, and theories of international law by exploring the fundamental questions since the discipline's inception in the Sixteenth Century. Provides a working familiarity with the origins of Public International Law, International Human Rights Law, International Criminal Law, International Organizations, International Trade Law, Law and Development, and Conflict of Laws. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Considers foreign solutions to certain key legal problems. Focuses on general problems of legal process, rather than on substantive rules. Topics include the role of lawyers, civil dispute resolution, criminal procedure, and employment discrimination. Covers different legal systems in different years.

Outlines the history and basic principles of Jewish Law, Halakhic system that encompasses Biblical law and the Rabbinic law. Covers Legal Sources of the Jewish laws, interpretation, legislation, custom, precedence and legal reasoning. Explores the study of modern legal system of the state of Israel and examines the problematic nature of the incorporation of the Law of personal status in the Rabbinical and in general courts. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Examines the nature, structure, and sources of international law, the relationship between international law and domestic U.S. law, the role of international organizations such as the United Nations, the methods of resolving international disputes, the bases of international jurisdiction, and select substantive areas of international law that may change from semester to semester. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Examines the law of the World Trade Organization and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Examines rules restraining national restrictions on trade that addresses tariff and non-tariff barriers, discrimination, regionalism, anti-dumping, countervailing duties, and safeguards. Considers the relationship between trade and other regulatory areas or social values, such as environmental protection, health and safety standards, human rights, intellectual property protection. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Explores comparative law, jurisprudence, conflicts of laws and international law. Examines the Nazi philosophy of law emanating from its egregious racial ideology, and how it was used to pervert Germany's legal system to discriminate against, ostracize, dehumanize, and eliminate certain classes of people. Studies the role of international law in rectifying the damage by bringing perpetrators to justice and constructing a legal system designed to prevent a repetition.

Examines international environmental law, including transboundary impacts and global issues. Addresses such issues as intergenerational equities, principles of compensation, and if international environmental norms should receive special environmental norm consideration. A course in public international law is not a prerequisite, but students who have not taken such a course will probably find it useful to do some additional background reading. Offered in alternate years.

Examines the Formative Era of Islamic Law, through its sources and methodologies. Examines the Established Era of the Schools of Law including differences between Sunni and Shiite Islamic Law. Examines human rights, terrorism, political Islam, women's rights and rights of religious minorities, criminal law, and finance law, and the growing role of fundamentalism in these areas. Examines the relevance of Islam and Islamic law in today's world.

In today's globalized world, lawyers are increasingly likely to encounter issues involving foreign employment. The course will provide substantive knowledge about foreign employment law and its relation to American law, as well as a comparative framework to assess the relative merits of the American approach to employment law.

Covers legal issues pertaining to noncitizens of the United States, especially their right to enter and remain as immigrants and nonimmigrants. Topics include admission and exclusion, deportation, and refugees and political asylum. Approaches topics from various perspectives, including constitutional law, statutory interpretation, planning, ethics, history, and policy. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Exposes students to the rapidly growing body of jurisprudence, both international and national, wherein international humanitarian and human rights law are being applied for the purposes of prosecution, trial and punishment of individuals alleged to be responsible for the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and, more recently, terrorism. Prereq., LAWS 6400.

Examines various mechanisms for the settlement of international disputes. Includes negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, and adjudication. Focuses on intergovernmental dispute resolution.

Surveys international human rights law and international crime and punishment. Addresses idea of rights from a historical, philosophical, conceptual and analytical perspective; explores the "Primary rules of conduct" as well as adjudication and remedies, and selected rights from a comparative perspective. Recommended prereq., LAWS 6400.

Surveys international human rights both in law and in philosophy, both current and historical.

Focuses on protections offered under international and domestic law for persons who are threatened by persecution or other adverse conditions in their country of origin. Covers who is a refugee and the protections they have or do not have under United States and international law.

Examines the sources of international business law, the relationship between such law and the U.S. legal system, the choice of law in international business disputes, the special issues that arise when doing business with foreign governments, the law governing international sales and the shipment of goods, and international intellectual property protection.Offered in alternate years.

Addresses four broad questions: Who is a citizen of the United States? Who else can come to this country? When and why can noncitizens be forced to leave? Who has the authority to answer these questions? These questions prompt us to examine the history of U.S. immigration, the constitutional-statutory-regulatory framework that governs immigration and citizenship law, and the federal agencies that administer it. Also addresses contemporary challenges to, and assertions of, immigrants' rights. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Addresses issues in international criminal law in three parts: 1) basic contents of international law, 2) international criminal tribunals that enforce international criminal law, and 3) national efforts to bring international criminal prosecutions. Recommended prereqs., LAWS 6400 and 7440. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.

Addresses the extent to which the international community of nations is oil dependent. Assesses the impact and the geopolitical dangers to international relations arising from the expanding demand for scarce oil from developing, as well as developed, economies.

Compares public health law systems to those in other countries. Studies the goals, legal structures, and services provided, together with such issues of coercion as quarantines, monitoring, mandates and prohibitions, and forcing pharmaceutical companies to make available inexpensive generic drugs.

Examines the law of the World Trade Organization and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Examines rules restraining national restrictions on trade that addresses tariff and non-tariff barriers, discrimination, regionalism, anti-dumping, countervailing duties, and safeguards. Considers the relationship between trade and other regulatory areas or social values, such as environmental protection, health and safety standards, human rights, intellectual property protection. Restricted to Law students only. Prerequisites: Restricted to Law students only.